WIST Quotations

Fuller, Thomas (1654) -- Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 2, # 2390 (1727)

Dave — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 15:15:42 +0000

Think no Cost too much in the Purchasing [of] good Books; this is next to the acquiring of good Friends. But remember, they are better Ornaments in thy Head than in thy Library.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 2, # 2390 (1727)
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Austen, Jane -- Letter (1798-10-27) to Cassandra Austen

Dave — Tue, 07 May 2024 16:04:05 +0000

Next week shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) English author
Letter (1798-10-27) to Cassandra Austen
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Curie, Marie -- Letter to Casimir Dluski’s mother on her offer of a wedding dress (1895)

Dave — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 16:07:24 +0000

I have no dress except the one I wear every day. If you are going to be kind enough to give me one, please let it be practical and dark so that I can put it on afterwards to go to the laboratory.

Marie Curie (1867-1934) Polish-French physicist and chemist [b. Maria Salomea Skłodowska]
Letter to Casimir Dluski’s mother on her offer of a wedding dress (1895)
(Source)

Regarding an offered wedding dress for her marriage to Pierre Curie (1865-07-26). As quoted in Eve Curie Labouisse, Madame Curie: A Biography, ch. 8 (1937) [tr. Sheean (1938)].

Harmon, Dan -- “Drunk High Christmas Greetings!” blog entry, DanHarmon.com (26 Dec 2008)

Dave — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 22:37:44 +0000

No matter how black, white, male, female, Irish, German, tall, short, ugly or pretty you felt this year, you are part of a family that has been targeted by an unforgiving cosmos since its inception but has, regardless, survived. If a TV show about this family were to be created, you would very, very much enjoy it, and pay very much money for several seasons of it on DVD, because humanity, warts and all, is an inherently heroic species that has spent about 99.99% of its short lifetime as an underdog. And If you see no billboards telling you that, it’s not because it’s not true. It’s because there’s little to no profit to be made telling you.

I could go on and on about the suffering we’ve endured and the adaptations we’ve made, but to me, our species’ crowning jewel is that on the shortest day of the year, when the sun spends most of its time swallowed, when everything is frozen, when nothing can grow, when the air is so cold our voices stop right in front of our faces … we put a string of lights on a universe that is currently doing nothing to earn it. We not only salvage an otherwise desolate time of year, we make it the best time of year.

Dan Harmon (b. 1973) American writer, producer, entertainer
“Drunk High Christmas Greetings!” blog entry, DanHarmon.com (26 Dec 2008)
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Morris, William -- “The Decorative Arts: Their Relation to Modern Life and Progress,” Lecture (4 Dec 1877)

Dave — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 22:43:57 +0000

To give people pleasure in the things they must perforce use, that is one great office of decoration; to give people pleasure in the things they must perforce make, that is the other use of it.

William Morris (1834-1896) British textile designer, writer, socialist activist
“The Decorative Arts: Their Relation to Modern Life and Progress,” Lecture (4 Dec 1877)
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Morris' first public lecture. Later published as "The Lesser Arts" in Hopes and Fears for Art (1882).

Morris, William -- “The Beauty of Life,” lecture, Birmingham Society of Arts and School of Design (19 Feb 1880)

Dave — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 21:11:31 +0000

Our golden rule: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

William Morris (1834-1896) British textile designer, writer, socialist activist
“The Beauty of Life,” lecture, Birmingham Society of Arts and School of Design (19 Feb 1880)
(Source)

Wright, Frank Lloyd -- Lecture (1930-10-02), “To the Young Man in Architecture,” Chicago Art Institute

Dave — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:39:48 +0000

Then go as far away as possible from home to build your first buildings. The physician can bury his mistakes, — but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) American architect, interior designer, writer, educator [b. Frank Lincoln Wright]
Lecture (1930-10-02), “To the Young Man in Architecture,” Chicago Art Institute
(Source)

Closing pieces of advice, #11. One of two lectures delivered at the Institute. While the lectures took place in 1930, they were collected in book form in 1931, which is usually the year they are cited to. Both were reprinted in Wright, The Future of Architecture (1953).

In an article during the lead-up to that book, "Frank Lloyd Wright Talks of His Art," New York Times (1953-10-04), Wright restated the advice, but turned around:

The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines -- so they should go as far as possible from home to build their first buildings.

For more discussion of the origins and variations of this quotation, see: Quote Origin: The Architect Can Only Advise His Client to Plant Vines – Quote Investigator®.

Martin, Steve -- L. A. Story (1991)

Dave — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:27:55 +0000

HARRIS: You know, you’re really nobody in L.A. unless you live in a house with a really big door.

Steve Martin (b. 1945) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, musician
L. A. Story (1991)
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